The final aspect of our threefold problem is related to our life. This aspect has been solved by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This is a wonderful matter. Even if we spoke for a month, we could not adequately cover the mystery of His resurrection. The principle of resurrection can be seen in the biological world, including the plant life and the animal life. When a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, it dies and its outward shell decays, but when it decays, something from within the seed begins to grow. This speaks of the principle of resurrection. A chick breaking out of its shell also illustrates the principle of resurrection. Biologists tell us that many things receive life through the process of death, passing from death into resurrection. Although this is a mysterious matter, the principle of resurrection can be seen in the biological realm. The Lord Jesus died and was resurrected. The Scriptures tell us that His resurrection released His glorious life from within Him (John 12:24). Just as our voice is transmitted through radio waves, the Lord’s life is released through the Holy Spirit into everyone who believes.
When we call on Him and draw near to Him, a wonderful thing happens: His Spirit enters into us with His life so that we may have His life. Thus, we have another life within us. At our birth we received our physical life. However, when we repented and received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He came into us with His life to be our life. There are now two kinds of life within us. When we were born, we received the human life, and when we believed in the Lord, we received the divine life. After receiving the Lord, every saved person soon discovers that there are two persons with two lives inside him. The first person is our old man with our original sinful life; the second person is the Lord Jesus with His divine life. The first life comes from our parents; the second life comes from the Lord. The first is the life of man; the second is the life of God. The life of man is evil and corrupt, but the life of God is holy and good. The life of man is dark, but the life of God is bright. And the life of man corrupts man, but the life of God empowers man.
The two lives within a believer are in constant opposition to each other. Nevertheless, the divine life that we have received by believing on the Lord Jesus is more powerful than our sinful life. When we were regenerated, we received the life of God. Now we can live by the life of the Lord Jesus, rather than by our sinful life. Salvation changes the source of our life. Salvation solves the deepest aspect of our threefold problem.
When the Lord died for our sins on the cross, He solved the aspect of our problem related to our behavior. When we believed in Him and called on Him, He also solved the aspect of our problem related to our nature by applying His death to our sinful nature. Furthermore, when we believed in Him and called on Him, He entered into us as the life-giving Spirit in resurrection to be our life and to live in us. This solved the aspect of our problem related to life. Rather than having only our original corrupted life, we now have the life of God. With His life we also have a new nature, which is holy and good and which produces proper behavior.
This is how the Lord Jesus saves us. As our wonderful Savior, He has accomplished a wonderful way of salvation. When a person believes in Him and fellowships with Him, his sins are forgiven, his nature is transformed, and he receives God’s holy and glorious life. The Lord’s salvation solves the problem of our behavior, our nature, and our life. This is what He has done for us. Now He wants to live in us and become one with us by being mingled with us; in this way He becomes our living, glorious, and wonderful Savior.